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October 13-19

I first heard of Marilou Diaz Abaya when I read a now out-of-print collection of the movie reviews of the film scholar and critic Isagani Cruz in the mid-90s. That book really taught me to appreciate movies, especially Filipino movies, so much so that I would tend to applaud the director more rather than the actors. Isagani was very vocal about his admiration for Marilou, pointing out the significance of even camera angles; In Brutal, for example, Amy Austria plays a battered woman, and there's a scene where she is sitting at the edge of the screen, that shot showing her feelings of being cornered, of being trapped in a situation that is suffocating and ultimately fatal to her spirit. It's sad when I first heard just last Oct. 12 that Marilou, one of the greatest Filipino filmmakers of our time, has died. By way of paying tribute, here's the link to watch, in full, her cinematic masterpiece, Rizal

The (sadly) now-defunct radio station NU 107 had a tagline: "Once a rocker, always a rocker!" I love music and appreciate all kinds of genre but I also dont believe in labels. Then again, like in Rock of Ages, "I love rock and roll!" I super-duper enjoyed the bus DVD during a trip from Manila to Calamba via Skyway on Sept. 15, 2012. It was a collection of live performances, really awesome. First was The Eagles with the accoustic version of Hotel California: "On a dark desert highway...!"

(I like Desperado: "It may be raining, but there's a rainbow above you...")

Next was Queen. Freddie Mercury, fully alive and half naked, on the piano, singing the incredible classic Bohemian Rhapsody. During the Italian opera acapella part, they played a recording, with deft kleigh light magic hiding the stage, but they came for a rousing finale

(My favorite Queen song is A Kind of Magic, theme from one of my favorite movies of all time: the original Highlander with Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery).

It was about the time we're passing the airport. A plane flew overhead, hopefully an aerodynamic harbinger of good things to come

When I think of Glee, I always think of the mohawk-hair guy, Puck, singing Sweet Caroline, in an episode I've seen way back. I saw only one full episode, a rerun from Season 3, on local channel Studio 23, Sept 1, 2012. Puck gets in a fight with a bully who insults him deep through the bone because he has nothing to show for himself and probably won't even graduate. Tina falls into a fountain, and when she gets up, she has become Rachel, whom she idolizes. She sings Because You Love Me: "For all those times you stood for me..." and she finally achieves her dream of a standing ovation. She and Rachel goes to a famous singing coach played by Whoopi Goldberg, and they sing What A Feeling. "Take your passion! And make it happen...!"

I know the cast's faces though not their names, and they all switch roles in Tina's dream. The gay guy becomes her boyfriend. In a waking scene, he refuses to wear drag for the national finals. "Just because I'm gay," he says, it doesn't mean I want to wear women's clothes!" So Puck puts on a dress. The female teacher tells him: "You're the ugliest woman I've seen!" But one of the female cast says, "I'm strangely turned on!"

I like the Shannon character best, and I love the song she and Puck sing, Mean: "Why do you have to be so mean..." Shannon wants to leave her husband (or boyfriend?). At first, she says, "What's the world worth if we don't give second chances?" But she finally had it. She doesn't hate him, she says. "The worst part is that I love you!" she tells him. "But what does that say about me?"

Logan and his brother Viktor are immortals. They can never die nor grow old because they possess the mutant genes for accelerated healing. Shoot them down and watch them get up and get you. They fought side by side during the Civil War, then through two world wars and then in Vietnam. Stryker, a government scientist with his own secret agenda, recruited them to join his group of powerful mutants. Logan walked away in disgust at their bloodlust. In search of peace, he found love. He and Kay were happy living in the mountains of Canada; he as a lumberjack, and she as a pre-school teacher. Then one day, Stryker appeared, an intrusive ghost from the past. Viktor has been killing their former teammates, he warned. Logan's past destroyed the fragile peace of his new-found life. Then one day, he found Kay's body, with no signs of life. Logan vowed revenge.

"No law, no code of conduct," he told Stryker. "Just point me in the right direction and get the hell out of my way!"

Today I posted the 2Rivers Huggybear Page, containing all my videos, including the photo montages that serves as my album. These are for my family, children and my future grandkids, but everybody is welcome to watch them

Today I embedded the videos where I'm doing a mock documentary at Festival Supermall, and the ones where I'm reading passages from Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare and Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice

Also today, I changed the Blogger Profile photo, from the one where I'm wearing a blue sweater (taken at Robinson's Summit Tower in Ayala on Aug. 2010) to the one where I'm wearing a white striped shirt with rolled-up sleeves (taken just outside Northgate Cyber Park Alabang on Sept. 2012)

Huggybear is Jonathan Aquino, the author of Fisherboy, A Celebration of Life, The Way To Inner Peace and Why The World Needs Heroes. His poetry, stories, essays, and magazine features have appeared in major publications. His radio plays have aired on national radio in the Philippines with the great dramatist Salvador Royales as his mentor. His style of writing is influenced by Ernest Hemingway, Charles Lindbergh and Winston Churchill. He learned the art of editing from the works of DeWitt Wallace, founder of Reader's Digest. His 2Rivers showcases his new writings every Saturday. He lives in Cebu in the Philippines.